Worthwhile Will Leitch essay on Bill Simmons

It would be awesome if his idea for a new Hall of Fame caught on, but I sincerely doubt it. I'd even settle for the NBA doing its own venture - it seems like there are 40,000 college coaches enshrined, and not so much on the NBA players.

 

In the "what if" paragraph on Bill Bradley and Rick Barry he describes Barry as a scoring machine from the University of San Francisco when in fact it was the University of Miami.

 

That's just unnecessarily careless and sloppy, and quite frankly it's inexcusable. It takes five seconds to check that out if you don't already know it.

 

Horrifying.

 

No big deal . Simmons explained it. They were in a rush to get book out and gave a cursory nod to editing.

 

Blue font, pls.

 

SI gets killed here for these type of mistakes.

 

It's a fantastic book.

 

Fantastic?

After weeks of having finished the book, I realized it was worse than I thought it was going to be. It's basically just his views on the game. His research happens to be biased toward his opinions, and it's quite insulting that his account is titled "The Book of Basketball."

There's slanted insight and basically his own personal "best of the best."

 

I'm halfway through it. Going to take another 2 weeks to finish.

He is a basketball guy, ain't no doubt about it, and so far I disagree with only a few of his assessments.

With guys like Reggie Miller, for instance, he spent almost 1,400 words explaining why he's the last person cut from level 2 of the pyramid. It wasn't, like, "Oh, that Reggie is a little bitch who beat my beloved Celtics on a last-second jumper so I don't like his pansy ass." Not even close.

I'm looking for reasons not to like the book. Just not finding very many.

 

The multitude of errors aren't turning you off, 'du?

 

No, because they don't interfere with his opinions and the historical context he's trying to present.

I don't care that he said Rick Barry went to San Fran, when in fact, it was Miami. San Fran/Miami have nothing to do with his myriad insights into Barry's on- and off-court persona. San Fran. Miami. Who cares? Yes, it's a fuck-up. It will be fixed for the second edition.

I'm reading this book for his opinions and history on the game. Yes, San Fran/Miami is an historical aspect that was fucked up. But Barry's school doesn't have anything to do with Barry's historical impact in the NBA. That's why it doesn't bug me.

I haven't looked at his Web site citing the 50 or so errors. If most of those 50 or so errors are minor fuck-ups like Rick Barry's school, then I really don't give a shit.

Simmons and I are in the same wheelhouse when it comes to the NBA. He's 40, I'm 38, so we both became fans at about the same time, and once '79-'80 came around, both of us were big fans. We've been on the same road for 30 years. What he's seen, I've seen. He's the biggest Boston Celtics blowhard I've ever read, and I'm fascinated by it, and yet his arguments are not tempered by his Celtics-colored egomania.

I'm giving him every reason to turn me off from the book. But it's too late. What he's selling I've bought into, because it's legit.

University of San Francisco ... University of Miami. Uh-huh, sure, his whole book is fatally flawed now.